The Dragon Gaurd
by Digger Jonez
Summary: Natsu's instincts tell him that something is off when he looks at a particular request. He along with Gajeel and Wendy take it upon themselves to find out, leaving a worried guild behind. What happens when they come back after just a few days? What happened on their mission? NatsuXErza & GajeelXLevy maybe some more.
1. Can I Have Your Attention Please?

A Dragon-slayers instinct is not something to ignore. Natsu had spent the majority of his life fighting and living with his instincts guiding him, he trusted them deeply for they had never once led him astray.

Maybe that's why he could seem a little dense at times?

For a man who runs on instincts it could be difficult to differentiate between them and his own thoughts. No matter how they could make him look he always followed them.

That is why he had spent the last hour and a half staring at a particular request on the guild halls notice board, he couldn't explain why but he had one hell of a bad feeling about it. He couldn't figure out why but for some reason he desperately wanted, no _needed_ to know.

He reached out and pulled the notice from the board and continued to look at it questioningly. Making up his mind he headed off towards the two other dragon slayers of the guild with the request in hand.

Luckily for him both of the mages he was looking for as well as the guilds three exceeds were gathered at a single table.

"Gajeel, Wendy take a look at this." Natsu stated with a lot less enthusiasm than usual, which did not go unnoticed by the iron dragon slayer.

Wendy looked at the request and read it out aloud. "Needed; mages to destroy monster. Reward: 800,000 jewels." She said with bug eyes as she read the reward. "That is a big reward!" She squealed.

"Why are you showing us?" Gajeel grunted curiously.

"I have a weird feeling about it." Natsu replied cryptically. "I want to check it out and I thought you guys might want in."

"I'm always ready to help!" Wendy cheered giddily.

"Aye sir!" Happy added.

Gajeel continued to watch Natsu. "Alright." He said with a curt nod. He didn't know why but for some reason he was concerned about Natsu's 'feeling'.

"Meet here again in an hour." Natsu said before walking towards Mira who was behind the bar as usual with a drunk Cana hassling her as usual. "Hey Mira I'm taking this mission with Gajeel, Wendy and the Exceeds." Natsu said happily as he showed Mira the request.

"I'll write it down for you Natsu." Mira said with her usual cheery grin. "This is exciting, all of the dragon-slayers on one team. I think I'll call it… 'The Dragon Guard'." She added with a chuckle. Mira blanched for a second. "Oh no… the damages…" She whispered to herself as she watched a chuckling Natsu walk away and out of the guild.

Cana couldn't help but laugh to herself. "Makarov aint gonna like this." She declared through her laughter.

**FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT**

A few hours later Erza, Lucy, Levy and Lisanna arrived at the guild after a day of shopping to which all the boys had quickly refused when the girls asked them to join them.

"Maybe I bought too much?" Lucy asked herself as she placed her heap of shopping bags down next to Erza's. "I'll have to go on a mission soon if I wanna eat this week." She added with a giggle.

"I fear I have to agree." Erza stated as she looked over her own pile of shopping bags. "Perhaps we should go on a mission as soon as possible."

"I'll get Natsu." Lucy stated with a smile knowing the pink haired mage would jump at the chance to do a mission.

"I'm afraid he's not here Lucy." Mira interrupted her scanning of the guild. "He went on a mission earlier today with Gajeel and Wendy."

"Why would they go together?" Lucy asked bewildered.

Mira shrugged but Macao continued after he joined them from his table. "I heard Natsu say that he had a bad feeling about the request so he got Gajeel and Wendy to go with him." He clarified.

"Why would Natsu enlist the help of the other dragon slayers?" Erza asked in confusion.

"I don't know." Macao answered. "But I don't think Natsu's 'feelings' have ever been wrong, and Gajeel had a weird look in his eye as well when he looked at the request."

"You should have stopped them." Erza stated, worry clear in her authoritative tone. "If something could spook Natsu and Gajeel then it is most likely a very bad thing."

Macao raised his hands in defence. "No offence Erza but not even you could stop all three dragon slayers, they looked pretty intense… well Wendy looked as sweet as usual but you know what I mean."

Erza knew he was right. Natsu was very near to his goal of surpassing her and she knew that. Gajeel was not quite as strong as Natsu but she had seen what those two are capable of when they worked together. Wendy may have been shy but there weren't many people in the guild who were as strong as she was. Macao was right and she knew it, if they were hell bent on going then no one could have stopped them.

Erza heaved a sigh in defeat. "Very well then. We shall just have to wait for their return and hope they had no problems." Erza then turned to Lucy. "How about you go pick a job for you and I to go on?" Erza asked kindly.

Lucy nodded her head with a smile as she walked over to the request board. "Can I come?" Lisanna asked happily.

"Of course. Go tell Lucy before she picks a job." Erza instructed. As she watched the white haired mage move towards the blond she couldn't help but feel an overbearing sense of worry rest in her gut. She knew of Natsu's 'feelings'… they had _never_ been wrong before.

**FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT FT**

A few days later the three women returned to the guild after a successful mission. Lucy and Lisanna were getting on like a house on fire, both being so similar made it easy to become close friends. Throughout the mission the two had bonded well whilst it was clear that Erza was very distracted. As soon as they had entered the guild hall Erza marched straight up to the bar where a less than lively Mira was standing.

"Has Natsu returned yet?" She questioned worriedly, completely forgetting her manors and that there were five other people on that mission including the Exceeds.

Mira shook her head. "Not yet. But they weren't scheduled to be back until some point today."

"True." Erza replied dejectedly. "But I half expected Natsu and Gajeel to do so much damage that they were sent home." She added with a dry unamused chuckle that she added to try and sound convincing… it failed.

"Don't worry Erza they'll be-" Mira started but she cut herself off when she saw the newly dubbed 'Dragon Guard' enter through the guild doors. The guild went silent when they saw them. Erza felt her breath hitch.

Natsu limped in first. His entire left leg was heavily bandaged from just above the knee down. His right forearm was also bandaged and there was a hefty bandage placed on his chest. Gajeel's forehead was wrapped tightly and he had a long scratch mark going down from his left shoulder to his right hip. Wendy looked ok but she was still relying on the iron dragon slayer for support. Strapped to Natsu's back was a large object wrapped in cloth.

Their clothes were in tatters but they all had massive smiles on their faces, even the one on Gajeel's face looked genuine.

Erza was quick to return to her normal state. "What happened?" She asked, her voice cracked ever so slightly.

Natsu's grin spread even wider. He took the object of his back and set it down in front of himself, he then unwrapped the cloth around it to reveal a massive and sharp tooth.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Natsu declared loudly and with a flourish as the guild gazed at his trophy. "May we present the tooth of Acnalogia!" He roared in excitement.

The guild paled. Even Erza. "What?" She croaked.

"The mission was a trap." Gajeel informed as he set Wendy down next Levy. "Some bastard wanted us to get mixed up with Acnalogia." Throughout this he was still smiling.

"You defeated Acnalogia?" Gray asked in awe.

"Not quite." Wendy answered bashfully. "When we realised what was going on Natsu told Gajeel to take me and run while he distracted him." She stated shyly. Many guild members, Erza included, felt like congratulating Natsu on his decision but were too shocked to say anything. "Naturally Gajeel told him where to shove it and decided to fight as well and I couldn't leave them so we fought him together."

"Long story short Natsu realised that Acnalogia's weakness is its mouth. After Natsu punched him in the face and his tooth fell out he ran away." The White Exceed Charles informed.

"With his tail between his legs!" Gajeel added with a roar and a mighty laugh.

Natsu was still silent with that shit eating grin spread across his face. It was there up until the point Erza decided to punch him in it with her armoured fist.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Erza screamed at the pink haired mage. "You knew something was wrong with that mission and you went anyway!"

Natsu groaned but looked her in the eye when he spoke. "I did what was right." He intoned.

"What was right?" Erza repeated darky. "Risking your life like that is never right!" She yelled angrily as she went to punch him again. Natsu ducked the blow and retaliated. No matter how injured he was he would never turn down a fight.

Natsu and Erza continued their brawl for hours, with no one stopping them. Mira took Wendy to the infirmary despite the blue haired girl's insistence that she wasn't hurt that badly and that she didn't want to be a bother. Gajeel proudly regaled the rest of the guild with their tale of triumph.

A few hours later the guild was pretty much empty. Erza and Natsu were still fighting but they were smiling as they did. Finally it came to an end when Erza tripped and landed on the pink haired dragon slayer who went tumbling to the floor with Erza on top of him. The two burst out into uncontrollable laughter after sitting in silence for a few seconds. It had been a fun fight.

When the two had finally calmed down Erza looked towards her friend. "I don't care how tough you are; the next time you get one of those bad feelings of yours make sure you let me come with you." The red head stated softly.

Natsu grinned. "Alright Erza, next time I will bring you along." He replied through his heaving pants of exhaustion.

"Good." She said warmly before standing up. On her way up she gave Natsu a quick kiss on his cheek leaving him blushing on the floor. She made her way to the guild hall doors. "Good night Natsu." She called over her shoulders, never looking back so that he wouldn't see her blush.

On her way home she couldn't help but wonder how powerful Natsu and the other slayers must really be if they could scare off something as powerful as Acnalogia. She also couldn't help but wonder if it Acnalogia was the kind of creature interested in revenge. If he was… then they could be in for a worrying time. Erza couldn't help but shudder at the thought.

The image of Natsu flashed into her mind. She smiled. _'He'd protect me… he always has.'_ She thought to herself in her short moment of weakness and perhaps loneliness?

Natsu was running a similar train of thought in his own mind. After facing Acnalogia he and the other dragon slayers had come to a startling discovery. A discovery that will seriously come back to bite them _all_ in the ass if and/or when Acnalogia decides to rear its ugly head.


	2. Confessions and Beautiful Errors

Natsu was lying back on his hammock in his shack with his hands behind his head. He was still heavily bandaged and was hurting quite badly, as much fun as his brawl with Erza was there was no denying that it wasn't the greatest decision he had ever made considering how injured he already was.

But that wasn't what was plaguing his thoughts at the time.

It was something much worse.

Acnalogia was a creature of monstrous power but one thing everyone always relied on was the fact that the world had the dragon slayers to help defeat him, if anyone could defeat the dragon of the apocalypse it would be a slayer... Only now Natsu now knew that wasn't the case.

The startling discovery they had made would change everything, despite Acnalogia's name sake as the 'Dragon of the Apocolypse' Natsu and the other slayers were now sure of one thing; Acnalogia was not a dragon... He was a god.

Dragon slayer magic would have no effect on it and the fact that there was only one known god slayer, a man who was on Zeref's side, did not bode well for their chances of beating the mighty creature when the inevitable attack came.

The world was in for more than just a little trouble.

As much as Natsu wanted to fight the great black reptilian god he knew that it would not work.

He and the other slayers had lied to the rest of the guild, they had been able to fend him off but not by themselves, they had had help.

Help from a surprise ally.

Help from someone who had sworn them to secrecy regarding his involvement as it was strictly forbidden.

Help from Metalicana, the Iron Dragon; Gajeel's father and mentor.

Natsu sighed deeply before flopping unceremoniously out of his hammock. He couldn't keep secrets; it just wasn't in his nature.

He would abide by the promise he made to Metalicana and keep his involvement a secret but he had to confess to Acnalogia's true nature. There were two people who needed to know.

Master Makarov and Erza Scarlet.

Natsu gingerly left his shack, careful not to wake his sleeping exceed/surrogate son Happy, and began his strenuous journey towards the guildhall.

As he approached he could hear a particular scarlet haired knight admonishing a few of the guilds members for what was most likely their normal every day behaviour. Natsu smiled at the thought of Erza, and then rather surprisingly he blushed. An image swept through his mind, the memory of when Erza had kissed him on the cheek the night before after their play-fight. He remembered how she felt when she landed on top of him, he could almost still smell her intriguing scent and he was sure he had a couple of bruises on his body left behind by her iron clad fists.

He wondered if she would remember how he felt after she landed on him or if she could remember his scent or if she was as proud of the bruises he had left as much as he was proud of the bruises she had left on him.

For a moment he doubted it. Why would she remember how he felt? Why would she want to be reminded of his bizarre smoke and ash scent? And why should she even want to look at the blemishes he left on to her body mar her perfect porcelain like skin?

Although she did kiss him, so that had to mean something… right?

He was so deep in his almost uncharacteristic like state of self-loathing that he actually walked head first into the closed doors of the guild hall with a loud clang.

"Dammit…" Natsu grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor. "Great start to the day so far…" He mumbled as he rubbed his now sore nose; just another injury to add to his list.

He entered the door to find the guild almost empty. He had been so preoccupied all morning that he hadn't realised that it was still very early in the morning. He looked around the hall and only spotted a few faces. Thankfully Makarov and Erza were amongst them.

His heart skipped a beat when he noticed Erza smile gracefully at him after she had realised he had walked in, there was a light pink dusting of a blush upon her flawless face. Natsu's mind went blank.

'_Why was I here again?' _ He thought to himself a he continued to stare helplessly at the face of Titania. _'Oh I remember!'_

Natsu was able to reel himself in before he made too much of a scene, his pause had not gone unnoticed by Erza who could only feel happy that she could make the almost ADHD like brain of the pink haired dragon slayer pause for thought.

"Master, Erza we need to talk about something." Natsu stated firmly in one of his _very_ rare moments of seriousness. Now people knew not to ignore his 'feelings' but people often felt their heart rate quicken and their breathing become shallow in excitement and dread when Natsu went serious, it usually meant _IMMENSE _danger.

"What is it my boy?" Makarov asked cautiously as he eyed up the still beaten form of Natsu Dragneel.

"Is everything alright Natsu?" Erza asked in a voice that was much softer than usual, her face carried a look of concern that was almost rare on her features.

Natsu led the two wizards back to Makarov's office before he began to explain what he, Wendy, Gajeel and the Exceeds had discovered during their fight with Acnalogia. He explained how they had come to the realisation that Acnalogia was not a dragon but a god; he did however leave out the bit about Metalicana intervening to save their hides.

Erza and Makarov were as white as sheets, all the blood had drained from their faces as they stared on in shock and horror and what Natsu had was saying.

"Are you sure?" Makarov asked seriously. Natsu only nodded slowly in affirmation. "Damn… that would explain why you're attacks did very little against him during our fight on Tenrou island." Makarov then groaned in frustration. "There is only one power than can truly harm a god and that is god slayer magic and that has been lost for centuries."

"How did Zancrow learn it?" Erza enquired thoughtfully.

"Hades collected tomes on lost magic's, he would have given it to him." Makarov explained.

"Then let's go to the old Grimoire Heart guild hall and take it." Natsu said as he punched his right fist into his open left palm. "Simple!"

"Not simple Natsu." Erza attempted to correct her secret crush. "We have no idea where it is." She said with a sigh.

Natsu raised a cocked eyebrow at the statement. "I know." He answered simply. Erza and Makarov stared at him in awe.

"How?" They both asked in unison.

"I asked Ultear." He answered with a shrug. "I was curious so I asked her, it's in the Jack-knife mountains to the south."

Erza and Makarov were a little shocked that Natsu actually provided a useful answer for something but chose to continue on anyway.

"What do you think master?" Erza asked her firm tone of voice returning.

Makarov looked at her in deep thought.

"We'll send… what did Mira call you again?" Makarov asked, semi-interrupting himself. "Ah yes, The Dragon Guard. We'll send the Dragon Guard along with you Erza and Gray."

"Gray's on a mission and won't be back for a few days." Erza informed.

"Damn." Makarov grumbled.

"Well then let's take Juvia, she's powerful." Natsu offered.

Makarov and Erza both thought about it for a moment before agreeing.

Natsu quickly left after that, he wanted to tell the two other dragon slayers about the plan. He didn't know what they were going to find or how hard it was going to be but he knew he could count on those he was going to have by his side.

He was almost out the guild hall doors when he felt Erza's iron clad hand on his shoulder.

"Natsu wait, you left something out of the story didn't you?"

Natsu knew exactly what she was talking about, but he couldn't break his promise to Metalicana but neither could he lie to Erza.

"You're right." Natsu stated honestly as he turned round to face the beautiful buxom knight. "But I was sworn to secrecy. Let's just say we had help from someone extremely powerful and leave it at that." Natsu answered with a warm smile.

Erza knew what he did. Everyone knew Natsu couldn't lie, but he knew how to tell the truth without actually telling the truth… he was a cunning man when he wanted to be and Erza found the trait very attractive.

"I understand." She said warmly, her hand still rested upon Natsu's shoulder and they were standing very close to one another. She blushed and remembered what she had done last night when they were this close and by the look on Natsu's face he was remembering it fondly as well.

She smiled and kissed his cheek again before wondering off with a massive blush spread across her face. She had missed. Natsu had moved to speak just as she leant and she had accidentally kissed his open mouth.

The feeling was incredible for the both of them but Erza was extremely embarrassed as well so she decided just to wonder off home instead of standing their explaining herself, she didn't want to apologise for it either… she enjoyed it.

Natsu watched her leave with his mouth agape.

He was going to ask if she wanted to grab breakfast with him but her actions were just as good as any food.

'_What's going on with me?' _Natsu questioned as he watched his armoured friend briskly walk away from him as he raised his hands to gently trace over his lips, he could still sense Erza's lips and it mad him feel... good. No, better than good! _'Now I've got both a good and a bad feeling about this whole situation-y thing… and I hope to the gods the good feeling is about Erza…'_


End file.
